I had to do it
by zotrills
Summary: She knew she had to do it. He knew he had to do it. No matter how wrong it was, they knew what to do. This is a oneshot for Ty Lee and Sokka.


**This is a one shot on Ty Lee and Sokka for a writing competition. Sorry if some of it doesn't make that much sense, I had to keep it under 2,000 words. I hope you like it. I got third place in the competition.**

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: Avatar the last airbender does not belong to me.<strong>

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><p><strong>ty lee's pov<strong>

I couldn't disobey Azula. That was all I could think about as I ran across the cable to catch up with the gondola. I couldn't disobey Azula. The water tribe boy - I think his name was Sokka - and Zuko had broken some prisoners out of Mai's Uncle's prison. I didn't want to fight them, but if I didn't Azula would not be happy. Her aura was already red when she wasn't angry.

I flipped off the cable and landed in front of one of the escaped prisoners. When I looked up at her face, I recognized her as the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors. And the girl that Sokka liked. It might be for the better if she fell off the gondola.

I'll admit it, the Kyoshi Warrior was good. She wasn't the leader for nothing. And it didn't help that she knew about my chi blocking. Every punch and jab that I aimed at her was blocked and vice versa.

Somehow, she had managed to push me to the edge of the roof. If it weren't for my days in the circus, I would have certainly fell into the boiling water. But instead, I was able to swing through an opening to the inside of the gondola and back out through the other side to the roof. From there, everything went back to throwing punches and blocking punches.

No one was winning. That is, until the gondola stopped causing everyone to lose their balance a little. I noticed that Sokka was about to slide off, but there was nothing I could do in front of Azula. Thankfully, Zuko grabbed his hand before he fell. I held in a sigh of relief.

Nothing happened for a few long seconds and I jumped onto the metal extension to see what was happening.

"They're about to cut the line!" I warned.

Azula looked back to check for herself. When she turned around she looked panicked for a moment, but her expression quickly went back to the calm smile I was used to, "Then it is time for us to leave. Goodbye Zuko."

Azula propelled herself onto a nearing gondola and I followed. A slight feeling of regret went through me as I thought about my choice to stay with Azula because of fear. I should've stayed even though they were about to cut the line. At least I still had Mai.

At that moment, I noticed something intense happening at the prison. I watched as Mai single-handedly took on all of the guards and started the cable again.

"What is she doing?" Azula asked enraged. I just shrug my shoulders. I knew exactly what she was doing and I knew what I had to do.

"I'm sorry Azula," I said before jumping on top of the cable. Before she could respond I was running up the cable to catch up with the other gondola.

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><p><strong>Sokka's pov<strong>

"It's Ty Lee!" I warned everyone when I saw the pink clad girl running on the cable towards us.

"Is my sister with her?" Zuko asked from behind me.

"No, it's just… her." I answered.

Suki appeared beside me, "I can take her."

"I don't think she is here to fight us," Zuko said as he looked out of another opening.

"She's with **Azula, **I don't think she's here to give us bacui berry cookies!" I said with sarcasm.

"Mai was with Azula and she saved us. I know Ty Lee and I don't think she would fight us after what Mai just did." Zuko pointed out.

"I hope you're right," I said. "But I'm still going up to make sure."

"I'm coming with you." Zuko told me. I nodded.

I pulled myself up onto the roof and drew my sword, just in case. Zuko stood up beside me as we waited for the circus performer to catch up.

"What do you want, Ty Lee?" Zuko asked when she jumped to the metal roof.

"I'm not here to fight," she raised her hands to show that she meant no harm.

"If you're not here to fight, then why are you here?" I asked with my sword still raised.

"I don't want to continue to fight for Azula. Mai fought against her, so I will too." she answered.

I looked at Zuko, "How do we know we can trust her?"

"We don't have enough time to make sure, but my instincts tell me she's on our side. I've known her since I was little. She's not one to lie about something like this." Zuko said.

"Let's just hope that you instincts are better than mine." I sighed before climbing back down from the roof, followed by Zuko and, dare I say her name, Ty Lee. I would keep a close watch on her.

It wasn't long until the gondola make contact with the land. Everyone ran out as fast as they could, eager to leave the Boiling Rock. Then came the next problem.

"Well, we made it out. Now what?" I asked.

"My sister was on that island." Zuko pointed out the obvious.

"Yeah, and she's probably right behind us so let's not stop." I said.

"What I mean is she must've come here somehow." Everyone looked at Ty Lee.

"What?" she blinked. "Oh, you want me to show you Azula's airship!" she said and cartwheeled over to the cliff. She pointed down to the bottom where a huge airship was docked. I still didn't trust her.

We ran down the hill and boarded the airship with Zuko driving since he was the only one who knew how the airship worked. I made a mental note in my head to stay where I could see Ty Lee the whole time. Suki edged her way over to me, "Are you sure we can trust her?"

"No, but Zuko said we could and I trust him." I answered truthfully.

"That's not the same thing." She said and then went back to silence. I narrowed my eyes at the overly cheerful girl.

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><p><strong>Ty Lee's pov<strong>

I was nervous. I hadn't even completely gotten the trust of Sokka and the Kyoshi Warrior that he called Suki. Now I had to see if the rest of the avatar's friends would trust me. Not only was I nervous about that, but I was nervous for Mai. Who knows what Azula would do to her.

Zuko had docked the airship and everyone was getting ready to show themselves. All these nerves were bad for my aura, so I took a deep breath and thought of all the good things that could happen.

"Did you at least get some good meat?" a young girl's voice asked.

"I did. The best meat of all. The meat of friendship, fatherhood, and _other _stuff." Sokka said.

Everyone filed out of the airship. "Ty Lee!?" Everyone exclaimed at the same time and got into bending stances.

"Relax, she's on our side," Sokka said standing in front of me. I nodded and smiled in confirmation.

"I don't know, Sokka." The waterbender, Katara, said.

"I don't want to fight for Azula anymore," I clarified.

"She's telling the truth." The blind earthbender girl said.

"I don't like it, but if Toph says she's not lying then I see no reason against it." Katara said.

I smiled even bigger than usual. The group separated, probably to get their things to go to sleep. It was getting late and it had been a long day. I flipped over and walked on my hands to follow where everyone else was going.

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><p><strong>Sokka's pov<strong>

It had to have been the middle of the night when I heard footsteps. I opened one eye and watched as Ty Lee got up and walked away from everyone else. A little bit suspicious if you ask me. I did what any other person would do and followed her.

Ty Lee was doing… well, whatever it is she does when she does all those flips and cartwheels. I watched her for a minute. I'll admit it, she was cute. But so was Suki.

She did a backbend and saw me standing there, "Hi there, cutie!" she said happily.

"I'm just gonna… go," I said and started taking slow steps backwards. _I was with Suki, _the voice inside my head reminded me.

Ty Lee flipped backwards so that she was facing me, "You don't have to go." I don't know why, but I stopped walking.

"Come on, let's talk," she said and sat down on the ground. Once again, I don't know why, but I went over and sat beside her. The voice inside my head kept warning me about Suki, but I didn't listen.

"Aren't the stars just so… stary?" she asked as she looked up at the sky.

"Yeah, they are." I said, also looking up.

She turned her head and looked at me with her wide grey eyes. I met them with my own blue ones. This was bad, but I couldn't force myself to walk away. This was wrong, but I couldn't talk myself out of it. I knew I had to do it. Suki could wait.

I kissed Ty Lee.

And she kissed back.


End file.
